Double Take
by YourGirlThursday
Summary: This was not how their big reunion was supposed to go. The plan was that Cassie would find Cole and update him on things. Together they would make a plan, become partners again. So far Cassie was failing miserably at that first step. (Or the first time Cassie traveled to Cole was not the first time Cole was visited by Cassie.) Post 1x13 (re-edited 6/13)


**I edited this to take out all of the awful coding. Sorry about that the first time around!**

 **So I really hope I did enough to get the concept across. Time is moving chronologically for Cassie. The first section is her first trip. The second section is her second trip. The second section is told from Cole's POV. It's his first time seeing Cassie again. Very, very vaguely inspired by River Song and the book The Time Traveler's Wife.**

* * *

This was not how their big reunion was supposed to go. The plan was that Cassie would find Cole and update him on things. Together they would make a plan, become partners again.

So far Cassie was failing miserably at that first step.

Jones didn't have an exact location for Cole. His tracker still worked, but it was hard to pinpoint where he was. She narrowed it down to a three mile radius, which was large, but still better than Cassie expected. Three miles seemed like such a small area given that they were working with faulty equipment and separated from Cole by several decades.

The distance now seemed never ending to Cassie. The machine had splintered her to the middle of a forest. It was so dense with trees that it was a wonder Cassie hadn't impaled herself on a branch already. When she got back to 2043, she would have to ask Jones to check her for ticks. Cassie had worked with both Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever at her job. She wasn't keen on catching either one.

It shouldn't surprise her that Cole decided to hide out in the middle of the woods. It made sense. He knew how to survive off of the land. The trees gave him excellent coverage for hiding. They also made it damn near impossible for Cassie to find him. She trudged on anyway, covering little ground. Roots snaked across the ground. Their presence required Cassie to step cautiously. The last thing she needed was a twisted ankle.

A few hours later, Cassie made it to a small clearing. There was a tiny cabin situated at the edge. A dirt road wound its way up to the porch. Cassie's first impulse was to run toward the cabin and ask for help. She resisted and sank further into the shadows. After a cursory inspection of the place Cassie determined no one was home. Just to be safe, she snuck in the back door. Cole had taught her a lot about lock picking before she left.

The cabin was relatively clean. The only signs of inhabitants were the stacks of paper and an empty coffee cup on the table. Cassie found a package of cookies to eat while she examined the rest of the cabin. She took a bite of the first one and savored the taste of sugar. It had been so long since she had eaten junk food. Cassie continued to eat her snack as she rifled through the pages. She stopped when she saw her name. It was on a timeline. It took her no time to figure out who created it. The entire thing was from Cole's point of view.

 _Met Cassie._

 _Tried to sacrifice myself in Night Room._

 _Lost her._

It was their entire story told through broken lines and sentence fragments. Pieces looped back over themselves showing how Cole had jumped through time. Cassie's fingers traced the letters as she imagined Cole writing them.

He was alive and looking for her.

That thought pushed Cassie into action. She scribbled down everything she thought was important at first. It ended up being mostly incomprehensible so she started over. It was a linear description of everything that had happened to her from the Army to Deacon to Dr. Jones.

Cassie wrote and wrote until her hand cramped up and tingled. She set down the pen and several pages she had managed to write. Her eyes scanned back over the pages. There were words she botched the spelling of. Some were only half there because she was in such a hurry to move a sentence along. A few sentences were a mishmash of two ideas. A sound outside pulled Cassie from her editing. Cassie edged toward the door. She grabbed a chair from the kitchen just in case she needed a weapon. As she peered through the window, she saw an old pickup truck pulling into the clearing. It stopped near the opposite edge from the cabin.

Cassie's heart leapt into her throat. Cole was in the passenger seat. He was within shouting distance. Cassie dropped the chair, nearly tripping over it in her haste to get to the door. She threw the door open and jumped over the entire set of stairs. Cassie ran toward the truck.

"Cole!" She half-shouted, half-cried out.

Cole practically flew out of the truck. He ran toward Cassie. She could see his mouth moving, but couldn't hear what he said over the pounding in her ears. Her hands tingled as they got closer together. To cover the last few feet Cassie launched herself at Cole, intending to throw herself into his arms. While Cassie was midair, she felt a strange tugging sensation. It burned through her body. Her mind chanted the word 'no' over and over again as the pain set in. Travelling back hadn't hurt nearly this much.

When Cassie opened her eyes, she could barely make out Dr. Jones' shape through her tears. "It wasn't enough time. Send me back now," Cassie whispered angrily.  
Unfortunately for Cassie it took a whole week to reconfigure the machine. When it dropped Cassie in the middle of the woods again she spent two minutes swearing just to quell her anger. At that point she didn't even realize that she had landed five days before her previous visit.

* * *

Cole fiddled with his papers. He stretched out his arms, then put the tip of his pen to a new sheet of paper. He held it there, unsure of what to write. His leg bounced up and down as he thought through what he wanted to say. He had spent the better part of their month in hiding writing. It was every little detail he could remember from his time as a time traveler. He had just finished a complete timeline of what all he had gone through. There wasn't much more he could write about.

Anxiety was starting to set in. Every day Cassie didn't show up meant that it was less likely she would the next day. Cole tried not to think about her chances of survival. He kept planning as though she would walk through the door at any moment. Cole had all of this nervous energy and no way to handle it. He decided to take a hike through the woods. It would calm him.

Cole told Ramse where he was going. The other man barely looked up from his own writing. He had an extra twenty years of memories to slog through. He also didn't have Cassie to worry over.

Cole stopped to put his boots. He had slowly been getting used to the relative safety of the cabin. Sleeping without his boots on was a luxury Cole got to experience only in the past. He usually kept them on when he was awake at Cassie's though. Ramse only wore shoes when he went outside now, and Cole had been following suit. Things were better between them, but they still weren't as close as they had once been.

Cole made his way outside. He exited the clearing that the cabin was nestled in. He took the same route he always did. It crossed a giant river about a mile away. He climbed over rotten stumps and fallen branches. Even with all of the debris in the way it took him no time to get to the stream. As he approached the water he heard a noise.  
His mind was in the past, but his instincts were still in 2043. He had to stop himself from going immediately to the noise being a person. They were in the middle of nowhere. It was significantly more likely that the sound came from a deer or a rabbit.

Cole doubled back to circle where he had heard the noise. He felt strangely gratified when he spotted a slim figure in a hoodie instead of an animal. His wariness had been warranted. The person looked across the river. Cole tried to sneak forward. He used to be very stealthy, but he was out of practice. Cole's arm was barely around the person's neck, when his whole body flipped over. The other person's weight pinned his torso down. The cold metal of a knife kissed his throat.

"Cole," his attacker gasped.

If there had been any air left in Cole's lungs after that hit, seeing her would've knocked the rest out. Cassie pulled the knife away from his neck and pushed her hood back. Her blonde hair was braided instead of down or in in a ponytail. Her eyes had gained some sort of hardness. Other than that she was his Cassie. He soon realized that she was drinking in his face as much as he was examining hers. A sad smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Cassie flung herself down onto Cole. He could barely understand her as she mumbled something about the last time she saw him. She hugged him tightly, burying her face in the crook of his neck. His arms wrapped around her. One steadied her along her back. The other cupped the back of her head. His thumb stroked her hair absently. Imagining this moment was what had kept Cole going the last month.

"You have no idea how happy -" Cole struggled to finish his sentence. There were so many ways to end it.

 _She had survived._

 _She was alive._

 _She was there with him, warm and real._

 _She was in his arms._

Cassie pulled back. She smiled sadly at him. "We've got work to do." She rolled off of him and stood up. She extended her hand to help him up. When Cole was standing too, Cassie squeezed his hand one last time before letting go of it. They made their way back to the cabin. Cassie asked if Cole had found her notes. He had no idea what she was talking about and told her as much. She seemed confused, but went over everything that had happened with her injury and recovery. Jones had fixed her up. Whitley had been teaching her how to fight. Deacon had finally caught on to the fact that Cassie would never forgive him for hurting Cole. Cassie was adapting and making the best of her bad situation.

They arrived at the cabin in very little time. Cole went through the door first. Ramse wouldn't expect Cassie to walk into the cabin. He barely looked up when Cole entered though. His only acknowledgement was a muttered greeting. When Cassie saw Ramse she immediately sprung into action. She slid in front of Cole and drew a small gun from her jacket. She leveled it at Ramse's head.

"How'd you find Cole?" Cassie asked.

Ramse looked up. A slow smile spread across his face. "This is my cabin. Cole and I are working together." He stood up, causing Cassie to adjust her aim. "Are you really going to shoot me again?"

Cassie's grip on her gun tightened. "If you try to hurt him again, yes."

"I won't," Ramse promised. "I'll keep an eye on him while you're away."

Cassie assessed him for a moment. She must've found what she was looking for because she lowered her gun. "If I come back and he's hurt in any way, I'm blaming you."

Cassie sat down at the table and started asking Ramse questions about his last thirty or so years. The conversation was stilted at first. Cole was at the head of the table watching them awkwardly go back and forth. It was so weird seeing two of the most important people in his life meet for the first time. It was so different from how Cole had pictured it happening. Back then Ramse was still his brother and Cassie was firmly in 2015.

Oddly enough, what made the tension fall from Cassie's shoulders was a common enemy. They had been talking about the Army and their machinations for a while. Cassie still considered Ramse one of them. Her clenched hands and narrowed eyes gave that away easily. When she mentioned Deacon's name, however, Ramse won her over. He told her that Deacon was a colossal dickhead and that she should kick him in the balls first chance she got. That was all it took for Cassie to warm up to Ramse. After that her posture was less stiff and she smiled more. She even teased Ramse that he needed to stock up on cookies for her visits.

They all traded information for a few hours. Cole got the feeling that Cassie was downplaying her recovery from the gunshot. He wasn't sure why she would do that. Although since she had been injected with the serum she would heal much faster. He wondered why she wouldn't really talk about it though. Cole thought about what he would do in her situation and realized that he always held back how much pain he was in. He kept his travel sickness from her too.

Cole reached out and placed his hand over Cassie's wrist. They had held hands before, but he wasn't sure if she would want to. Cassie's wide smile let Cole know he had done something right. Without skipping a beat in her conversation with Ramse, Cassie placed her other hand over Cole's. Her thumb moved slowly back and forth over his knuckles as she went into more details about the state of the Project Splinter base.

"How long does Jones think you'll be here?" Ramse asked.

A weight dropped through Cole's stomach. He had forgotten for a little while that his time with Cassie was only temporary. She could disappear at any moment. It seemed like Cassie had forgotten too. Her grip on Cole's hand tightened.

"It was only a few hours last time. There isn't a lot of power left." Cassie kept her eyes on Cole as she answered. He held her gaze and smiled sadly. She had already been there half the day.

"This isn't your first jump?" Ramse's voice cut through their moment.

Cassie frowned and looked between the two men. She pressed her lips together and shook her head. Her hands disentangled themselves from Cole's. She stood up quickly from her chair.

"I'm thirsty. I'm going to go get some water," Cassie said, not making eye contact with either man.

Cole shot Ramse a look. Ramse shrugged. Cole followed Cassie into the kitchen. She was chugging a glass of water. She finished it and refilled the glass in the sink. It was halfway gone before she noticed Cole.

"You know I used to be very fussy about water. Like I wouldn't drink it unless it was filtered and really, really cold. Now I'm just happy it's clear," Cassie told him. She peered through the glass at him, frowning.

"What's wrong, Cass?" Cole asked. He stood right in front of her.

Cassie stared at her hands. She gulped down the rest of her water then set aside the glass. "I want to tell you, but I can't right now." Cassie slowly moved into Cole's arms. She pulled him in tightly and lowered her head to his shoulder.

Cole wrapped his arms around her waist. He trailed one hand up and down Cassie's back, soothing her. It had felt like years since he had seen her. Her hair smelled like the shampoo they had at the base, instead of the flowery scent Cole was used to. She was smaller yet more muscular than she was before she had left, and not as thin as she was when she died. Cassie had nearly relaxed when her fingers bit into Cole's back.

"Cole," Cassie whispered, her voice tinged with sadness.

It was the moment they both had been fearing. Cole held on tighter. There was no space left between them. He wanted five more minutes, five more seconds, with her. Maybe if they clung to each other hard enough they would get to be together a little longer.

"See you soon," they both said at the same time.

A second later Cassie was gone. Cole was clinging to nothing. He was left with an aching feeling in his chest. It was one of the worst moments he had ever experienced, having her there in his arms one moment, but not the next.

At least he thought it was until the following week when she disappeared before he could reach her. His heart soared when he saw her running toward him. All he could think about was how badly he wanted to hold her again. Cole had braced himself for the impact, the feel of Cassie wrapped around him. Then his arms closed around thin air, and it damn near killed him.


End file.
